Game of the Month: April 2006

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The fourth cycle was all about the land, sea, and air!

By IGN PlayStation Team

With all the videogames released each and every month, it can be a difficult task to decide on which title to spend your hard-earned money. Granted, you could always go by our review scores alone and weed through the long list of names to find something that scored high or low, but what if you had somewhere else to turn?

Rather than wait until the end of the year for our big award blowout, your friends here at IGN.com have decided to employ a monthly tribute to the weeks that were. We've resolved to illustrate to our readers what we thought was the very best game for each system in the past month, and tell you the reason why.

Though some of us often chime in with our comments at the end of reviews, for the most part, the reviews on IGN are primarily written by one editor; in this feature we get all of the editors on a particular channel to vote for a single title. What better way to represent a team is there than to speak your collective minds at once?

How does it work? It's simple. Any game released in the past month is eligible for the award and is taken through a battery of tests by every editor on that particular channel. After we've finished evaluating each game we put our heads together and decide on a single "best of" winner that's worthy of the title "IGN Game of the Month." Pretty straightforward, don't you think?

Now that we have the guidelines out of the way, let's move on, and congratulate this month's winner...

Why We Picked It: "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" is a popular old adage that certainly applies to Namco Bandai's excellent dog-fighting actioner, Ace Combat Zero: The Belkan War. Though the fast-paced shooter isn't revolutionary by the series' previous standards, its refinements to the visuals, excellent mission design, and addictive multiplayer mode make it an absolutely joy to play anyway -- and the high-end AI and its challenging behaviors isn't too bad either. It's a must-have for any self-respecting jet fighter aficionado.

Why We Picked It: Despite a couple of presentational hitches (namely the interface), Tourist Trophy offers one heck of a great motorcycle racing experience. The best combination of riding and realism on the PlayStation 2 thus far, the game has some of the best handling this side of Gran Turismo (is it any wonder?) and top-notch graphics that few can compete with. Other Games Worth Noting in April:

It was a surprisingly solid month for PlayStation 2 software as we head into E3, but May is going to have to kick some major butt in order to keep up. Movie-licensed games like X-Men, Da Vinci Code, JAWS, and Over the Hedge are the some of the biggest-name titles to keep an eye out for next month, while Eidos' pair of contenders, Hitman and Rogue Trooper looks to compete with them. Will any of those take the crown as "the best game of May? Or will something completely unexpected grab the honors instead? Check back with us in 31 days to find out.